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  • Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh

  • Written by: Joseph Conrad
  • Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
  • Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (373 ratings)

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Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh cover art

Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh

Written by: Joseph Conrad
Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
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Publisher's Summary

Prose that demands to be read aloud requires a special kind of narrator. For the Audible Signature Classics edition of Joseph Conrad’s atmospheric masterpiece, Heart of Darkness, we called upon four-time Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh.

Branagh’s performance is riveting because he reads as though he’s telling a ghost story by a campfire, capturing the story’s sense of claustrophobia, while hinting at the storyteller Marlow’s own creeping madness. Heart of Darkness follows Captain Marlow into the colonial Congo where he searches for a mysterious ivory trader, Kurtz, and discovers an evil that will haunt him forever.

With this landmark work, Conrad is credited with bringing the novel into the twentieth century; we think Branagh brings it into the twenty-first.

Stay tuned for more one-of-a-kind performances from actors David Hyde Pierce, Leelee Sobieski, Tim Curry, and more, only from Audible Signature Classics.

Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

What the critics say

"Acclaimed Irish actor/director Kenneth Branagh impersonates Marlow in this recording. Admirably, while fully playing the drama, he never goes overboard. He plays the tale for the great yarn that it is." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

This book is a work of art in literature...

#Audible1. Conrad’s insights and ability to convey meaning and depth of human conquest from the perspective of hunter and the hunted...invokes within us, a view into darkness of our soul. It is only through the enlightenment through the medium of literature are we left enriched and placed in a mode of reflection....the Congo has never really recovered from the blanket of exploitation.
The narrator Kenneth Branagh takes us through this journey - the way Conrad may have envisioned this story is told...

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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It was okay

This book was just alright, honestly. I wouldn’t read it again. It’s interesting to analyze it from a metaphorical perspective. Quite a bit of controversial dialogue, I’d say! The narrator was great, though.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Apocalypse Now

This must be what apocalypse now was stolen from. Very cool.
Great performance would have be better if we had more explanation.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Sir Kenneth Brannagh

I've listened to thousands of hours of audio books and including a reading of this book and a previous narrator. The talent of this narrator brought this tale to life. He gave the work the intensity it deserves.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Kenneth Branagh is brilliant!

The highlight for me is Branagh's brilliant performance. It is perfection. I was, however, troubled by the racism in the story. Although this is, of course, historically accurate for the times (and even now in 2022), it still takes my breath away and is difficult to hear. Conrad's writing is powerful. I highly recommend this version due to Branagh's reading. Do I recommend Heart of Darkness? Definitely. What it says about human nature is invaluable. It is a classic for a reason.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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The horror ....

Men, apart from their civilized world, loose themselves to their darker nature. A state that neither Marlow, the protagonist, nor Kurtz, his objective, can reconcile. Marlow is scarred. Kurtz is destroyed.

This book requires a second read to fully absorb. Pay careful attention to the author's musings about the Roman legionnaire's impressions of the place that would become London as they first arrived up the Thames, and how they were affected by the swamp and the headhunters.

The book is somewhat akin to Golding's 'Lord of the Flies'.

First rate narration.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Boring and pointless rattling.

Racist, ridiculous. A waste of time. I wish I hadn't bothered. Proof that the term "classic" is abused and absurd.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic

What a great novel!!! Kenneth Branagh is fantastic. So impressive and wonderfull experience. One of the greatest book of the early XX century.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Amazing!

I have wanted to read this for a long time. I’m glad I listened to it. The performance by KB was nothing short of amazing!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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wisp of grasp.

tell KB that at least one reader caught this Easter egg. sat and listened and saw what was written into the words.

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